Why a Mother Is Suing Her 17-Year-Old Transgender Daughter

A mother in Minnesota filed a lawsuit against her 17-year-old transgender daughter for undergoing gender reassignment procedures without her permission, the Washington Post reports.

Anmarie Calgaro filed her lawsuit on Wednesday against her daughter, her daughter’s school district and the teen’s healthcare providers, asking to stop all further treatments. Calgaro’s daughter — whom Calgaro refers to as her “son” throughout her lawsuit — had undergone enough transition treatments by January to request a legal name change, according to the Post. But because Minnesota law requires parental consent for children to change their name, Calgaro blocked the petition.

“Not only was I robbed of the opportunity to help my son make good decisions, but I also feel he was robbed of a key advocate in his life, his mother,” Calgaro said at a press conference, according to the Post.

Minnesota law allows minors who are living apart from their parents and managing their own finances to make their own medical decisions. The lawsuit includes a copy of a letter from Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, which declared the teen legally emancipated because she was living separately from her mother and working two jobs to support herself.

Calgaro asserts in the lawsuit the current Minnesota law violates the U.S. Constitution by denying her parental and due process rights. Calgaro said at Wednesday’s press conference that she doesn’t object to her child’s transition, but that she wants “him to slow down.”

LGBTQ advocates, however, argue that Calgaro’s lawsuit and its language could have detrimental effects on her daughter. “Purposefully mis-gendering a transgender person is an act of violence,” David Edwards, who works for Transitioning Families, a community group that supports families with transgender children, said in an interview with NBC. “To continually do that to your child is not only insensitive but also really harmful.”